The present invention generally relates to a collecting container, and more particularly, to a waste toner collecting container provided with a corona charger for use in an electrophotographic arrangement of an electrostatic transfer type, etc, and having a function for accommodating waste toner after transfer, and also a function for charging a photosensitive member.
Generally, in a laser printer or the like which is an electrophotographic apparatus of an electrostatic transfer type, etc., it is so arranged that, after uniformly charging the photosensitive surface of a photosensitive member in a drum shape (referred to as a photoreceptor drum hereinafter), laser light from a semi-conductor laser unit or the like is irradiated onto the photosensitive surface so as to form an electrostatic latent image on said photosensitive surface. Toner for a developing material is caused to adhere onto the latent image by a developing device provided in the vicinity of the photoreceptor drum so as to form a visible toner image, which is subsequently transferred onto a copy paper sheet fed to a transfer station. Residual toner adhering onto the surface of the photoreceptor drum is scraped off by a cleaning blade or the like into the waste toner collecting container.
Incidentally, the photoreceptor drum, corona charger and developing material as referred to above are expendables. They are required to be replaced periodically.
Similarly, with respect to the waste toner collecting container, it is also necessary to periodically exchange or to take out the waste toner therefrom for maintaining the container in a condition to receive waste toner at all times.
However, in order to exchange the photoreceptor drum, corona charger, developing material, and waste toner collecting container, etc., individually, much time and labor are required therefor.
Accordingly, an arrangement capable of exchanging the corona charger upon replacement of a photoreceptor drum or another arrangement in which the items required to be exchanged such as the photoreceptor drum, corona charger, developing material, and waste toner collecting container, etc. are incorporated into one cartridge so that they can be replaced simultaneously have been proposed.
In the conventional construction as described above, however, before it becomes necessary to replace the photoreceptor drum, developing material or the like whose life has been prolonged recently, toner scattering in air tends to adhere to a charger line of the corona charger, thus undesirably giving rise to irregularity or variation in the charger output with respect to the photoreceptor. Therefore, it has been required to periodically clean the charger line by an exclusive cleaning item. Inconveniences such as breakage or deformation of the charger line, etc. tend to take place during the cleaning.